春节是中国人一年中的第一个传统佳节。过去，春节被称为“新年”，因为按照中国一直沿用的农历，这天是正月初一，为新一年的开头。据记载，中国人民过春节已有4000多年的历史，它是由虞舜兴起的。公元前两千多年的一天，舜即天子位，带领着部下人员，祭拜天地。从此，人们就把这一天当作岁首，算是正月初一。据说这就是农历新年的由来，后来叫春节。1911年辛亥革命后，中国采用公历纪年，农历新年便改称“春节”。

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　　Spring Festival is the first traditional festival for the Chinese people. In the past years, Spring Festival was called “new year”, for this day was the first day of the lunar month according to the lunar calendar which had long been used in China, so it was the beginning of a new year. It is recorded that Chinese people have celebrated Spring Festival for more than 4000 years, which was started by Yu Shun. One day as far back as 2000 B.C, Shun was inaugurated as the emperor. He led his men to hold a ceremony in honor of Heaven and Earth. From then on, people saw that day as the beginning of the year, i.e. the first day of the lunar month. This is said to be the origin of the lunar new year, which was called Spring Festival later. After the Revolution of 1911, China began to number the years according to the Gregorian calendar, and it was then that the lunar new year began to be called Spring Festival.